Thursday

I just realized something. The NCAA basketball tournament in going on right now. I do not care. I have come to the realization that I do not really care about basketball in any form. I do not care if it is the NBA or College or High School or peewee. I am not sure what changed. I used to like basketball. I grew up in the midst of Blazer madness. I was a huge David Robinson fan as well as Moses Malone and Charles Barkley when I was growing up. But somewhere along the lines in the last decade or so I just have lost total interest in the sport as a whole.

In fact as I have grown older the sports that I follow avidly have changed as well. I have always been a sports fan and when I was a child that meant watching televised ice skating events as well as the weekly professional bowling tournament that would be on every Saturday. But before those there was usually the Major League Baseball game of the week. When I went to Australia I ended up watching a Cricket match and I even found that pretty interesting. But really the only sports I follow any more are the NFL and a little, very little, bit of college football. I like mixed martial arts and I follow the National Hockey League and I like Soccer.

As I am writing this I think it has more to do with the internet and cable television and the availability of these sports to be seen. As a child we had basically four channels and then some local uhf that did not show sports. So there really were limited options. I never ever saw Hockey until my grandmother got cable it did not exist on television as a sport in the pacific northwest. Also really the only time I was able to watch soccer was late at night on the Oregon Public Broadcasting channel and even that was pretty sporadic. But now I can just turn on the computer or the television and pretty much find a clip of anything is being played and there are some crazy sports out there.

I think basketball just is kind of boring for me right now. I know that people will argue that they think soccer is boring and I can accept that argument. I, for numerous reasons, do not find it boring. I am not sure why. But I do know that I can sit down and watch or listen to a soccer match and it holds my interest but anymore when I try to watch basketball it just does not. The same goes for baseball I just have a hard time really getting into it. I do like going to live games but I think that is mainly because I can people watch and scream at the opposing team and the umpires. I love screaming at umpires and refs and opposing players. I think that is one of lives great joys for me.

I have a story about that. Want to hear it? Here it is. I went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game several years ago with my housemates. It has to be over 10 at this point and my be close to 15 years ago and the Mariners were doing pretty good as a team Ken Griffey Jr was there star player and it was pretty exciting to see him play live. It was also possible back then to see a game at the Kingdome and to get seats pretty close to the field without if costing an arm and a leg. So, I am unable to remember who they were playing, we had seats about 5 or 6 rows up from the field and right where the opposing teams bullpen area was. That is where the opposing teams pitcher was was warming up for the game. I do not even remember his name but I begin to yell at him.

Now when I heckle I rarely if at all use profanity. It is not clever and I do not think it is even funny. There is a time and a place for swears and at a public event with people and their kids around is not one of those places.(puts soapbox away) So I proceeded to tell the pitcher that perhaps his family was unhappy with the way he pitched and that my 80 yr old grandmother could do better. I also let him know that I thought Griffey Jr would have no trouble hitting a homerun or two off of him. It also had not occurred to me that he could hear me. I know that was silly of me but I swear I just figured that will all of the noise of the fans and the music and other players that my voice would blend and I was really just yelling for the amusement of my friends anyway.

So I continue to yell and then the pitcher just stops and turns and looks right at me while holding the baseball in his hand. I feel the people sitting on either side of me slide away and one may have muttered "you messed up now". I remember thinking he is going to throw that ball at me. This is really going to hurt. In the end he did not throw the ball. But the glare he gave me still haunts me. I also stopped heckling him and he went on to pitch his best game that season. I am pretty sure I cost the Mariners a win.

All of my rambling aside. While I may not like or enjoy basketball now it is fine with me if you do. So just leave me alone and let me follow the Portland Timbers.

RCTID!!!!